Perry's Victory on Lake Erie

The successes gained by the Americans in their naval combats on the ocean were succeeded by similar successes on the lakes, where two of the most notable victories of the whole war were won. These conflicts took place on the three lakes, Erie, Ontario, and Champlain, on each of which the combatants had built fleets. On Lake Ontario, though there were several minor encounters, no important contest took place, while the battle of Lake Champlain occurred in the last year of the war. We shall here, therefore, confine our attention to the battle of Lake Erie, which has attained a well-earned celebrity.

At the beginning of the war there was on Lake Erie an English fleet of six vessels, while the only armed vessel possessed by the Americans was lost at the fall of Detroit. This vessel was soon after retaken by surprise, and burned, while the Caledonia, a small brig, was captured. In the winter of 1812 Captain Oliver Hazard Perry arrived and took command of the naval forces on Lake Erie. With great energy he at once set himself to work to create a fleet. He purchased three schooners and a sloop, and built three other schooners, which were added to the captured brig Caledonia. Two twenty-gun brigs were also placed under construction in the harbor of Erie, where, in the midsummer of 1813, the American was blockaded by the English fleet, under Captain Barclay.

Taking advantage of the temporary withdrawal of Barclay's fleet, and having completed his brigs, Perry managed with difficulty to get them over the bar at the entrance to the harbor, and to put out into the lake. His foes, who had returned, at once withdrew into port. On the 10th of September the two hostile fleets came within sight of each other, want of provisions having compelled Barclay to leave the shelter of his harbor. Perry's squadron now consisted of nine vessels, the twenty-gun brigs Lawrence and Niagara, the three-gun brig Caledonia, the schooners Ariel, Scorpion, Somers, Porcupine, and Tigress, and the sloop Trippe, with a crew fit for duty of about four hundred and sixteen men. The British fleet embraced the ships Detroit and Queen Charlotte, respectively of twenty and seventeen guns, the brig Hunter, the schooners Lady Prevost and Chippeway, and the sloop Little Belt, with a crew of about four hundred and forty men. The Americans were superior in weight of metal, and nearly equal in men. The description of the battle that ensued we select from "The Naval War of 1812," by Theodore Roosevelt, a work which, while lacking vivacity of style, has the merit of greater accuracy and impartiality than most works on the subject.]

As, amid light and rather baffling winds, the American squadron approached the enemy, Perry's straggling line formed an angle of about fifteen degrees with the more compact one of his foes. At 11.45 the Detroit opened the action by a shot from her long twenty-four, which fell short; at 11.50 she fired a second which went crashing through the Lawrence, and was replied to by the Scorpion's long thirty-two. At 11.55 the Lawrence, having shifted her port bow-chaser, opened with both the long twelves, and at meridian began with her carronades; but the shot from the latter all fell short. At the same time the action became general on both sides, though the rear-most American vessels were almost beyond the range of their own guns, and quite out of range of the guns of their antagonists. Meanwhile, the Lawrence was already suffering considerably as she bore down on the enemy.. By 12.20 the Lawrence had worked down to close quarters, and at 12.30 the action was going on with great fury between her and her antagonists, within canister range. The raw and inexperienced American crews committed the same fault the British so often fell into on the ocean, and overloaded their carronades. In consequence, that of the Scorpion upset down the hatchway in the middle of the action, and the sides of the Detroit were dotted with marks from shot that did not penetrate. One of the Ariel's long twelves also burst. Barclay fought the Detroit exceedingly well, her guns being most excellently aimed, though they actually had to be discharged by flashing pistols at the touch-holes, so deficient was the ship's equipment. Meanwhile, the Caledonia went down too, but the Niagara was wretchedly handled, Elliot keeping at a distance which prevented the use either of his own carronades or of those of the Queen Charlotte, his antagonist.. The Niagara, the most efficient and best-manned of the American vessels, was thus almost kept out of the action by her captain's misconduct.